Guide roller mounting for pistons of gasholders



April B, 1941 W. E. GRUENING 23739K GUIDE ROLLER MOUNTING FOR PISTONS OF GSHOLDERS Filed March 23, 1938 INVENTOR. l' BY ,w bww/ww? Y WM MM ATToRNEYs Patented Apr. 8, 1941 GUIDE `ROLLER MOUNTING FOR PISTON S OF GASHOLDERS William Edward Grucning, Cincinnati, Ohio Application March 23, 1938, Serial No. 197,739

(Cl. 22d-26) 4 Claims.

This invention relates to gas storage reservoirs or the like employing a holder or shell and a floating piston. The present invention is directed specifically to improvements in the structure of the mounting of the rollers for guiding the piston relative to the holder wall. The rollers are installed around the circumference of the piston to guide and stabilize the piston as it moves up and down Within the holder. The piston rests upon the gas contained within the holder or shell and maintains the gas under pressure by virtue of the Weight of the piston. The piston moves up or down within the holder as determined by the amount of gas stored in the holder.

The rollers stabilize the piston and serve to p-revent tilting or binding thereof in its vertical movements. For this purpose, the rollers are mounted in spaced relationship and usually in upper and lower sets or tiers, spaced suiciently apart to maintain the piston on an even keel and thereby insure freedom of movement of the piston and eliminate the possibilities of leakage of gas past the piston, which might occur due to excessive tilting.

It has been the customary practice to mount the guide rollers rotatably in brackets secured rigidly to the piston. This arrangement has certain disadvantages, however, because of local or general irregularities which sometimes are present in the inner periphery of the holder It has been an objective of the present inventor f to provide an improved yieldable spring mounting for the guide rollers of gasholder pistons in which all of the rollers exert an equal pressure against the holder shell and in which the movement of the rollers is Within a range permitting the necessary floating of the roller and at the same time limited so as to insure the stability of the piston. By this arrangement each roller is free to yield inde pendently and within the proper range when i encountering irregularities. This results in a more uniform distribution of pressure around the periphery of the piston and holder.

Heretofore the piston rollers have, upon encountering irregularities in the holder shell,

limited, yielding deformed the relatively thin wall of the holder. This deformation has been more occurrent in a welded holder where it fractured the Welded points and otherwise destroyed the dt of the piston in the shell. This invention brings about the result that the piston rollers adjust, within safe limits, to the irregularities instead of forcing the shell to accommodate to the position of the rollers.

It has been another objective of the inventor to provide a spring mounting for the rollers which may be readily assembled and disassembled for replacement of parts in case of failure or Wear of the parts.

It has been a still further objective of the inventor to provide an improved roller structure.

Further objects and advantages will be more fully set forth in a description of the drawing showing one embodiment of the invention, in which:

Figure 1 is a fragmentary view of a portion of a gas holder taken from the outside with the holder shell removed to illustrate the arrangement of the rollers on the piston.

Figure 2 is a sectional View taken on line .i2-2, Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken on line 3-3, Figure l, detailing the construction of one of the rollers and its mounting brackets.

Figure 4 is a side view further illustrating the mounting bracket and roller.

Figure 5 is an end view of one of the roller mounting brackets.

The inventor has achieved his objectives in the disclosed structural embodiment.

Referring specifically to the drawing the gasholder wall is indicated at Hi and the piston generally at I l. The details of the structure of the piston form no part of the present invention and are included primarily as an environment for illustrating the rollers. The improved roller mountings may be installed in any type of gas or liquid reservoir employing a holder shell and floating piston.

Generally described, the piston comprises an I beam frame structure having a closure or deck l2 and a seal or packing ring i3. The seal ring and piston deck or closure are connected by a pliable sealing strip M to form a gas tight assembly to seal the gas stored beneath the piston. The seal ring or packing i3 is urged against the holder shell by means of weighted levers l5. The seal ring in this manner is adapted to yield in order to conform to irregularities in the Wall surface of the holder without permitting the escape of gas.

The guide rollers I6, preferably are mounted on circumferential girders Il and i8, forming a part of the frame structure of the piston, The girders are secured to upright I beams I9 of the frame structure and the I be ms include also a series of hangers 2S serving to support the seal ring I3.

The guide rollers it are formed preferably of a relatively soft material as laminated wood or of compositions such as will not score or wear the inner wall surface of the holder shell upon which the rollers bear. Referring to Figure 3, the roller is rotatably mounted on an axle 2l between a pair of support brackets 272-22. The roller is strengthened by means of a pair of end plates or caps 23 engaging opposite ends of the roller and secured against the roller by draw bolts 24. Each of the end plates includes a bearing hub E and a bushing 2d.

The support brackets in each instance consist of an L shaped member having one arm traversed by the axle 2l. An angular or foot portion 2'! of the bracket member is adapted to be attached to the girder or other supporting element by means of bolts 28.

In order to permit radial horizontal movement of the axle, the extended arm portions of the brackets are provided with elongated slots 29 through which opposite ends of the axle extend. The axle is held against axial displacement by means of locking clips 36 bolted to the bracket member, adjacent the slot and engaged in a notch 3l of the axle. By this arrangement, the axle is withheld against rotation and the axle and roller is free to move horizontally with respect to the bracket within a limited range as permitted by the slots 2S.

Each bracket member is provided with a coil spring 32 under compression between the axle and the angular foot portion 2l of the bracket. The springs include bearing studs 33 and 3ft at opposite ends each including a shank 35 extended inwardly of the spring 32 and having heads or seats 36 upon which the ends of the springs bear to transmit the thrust of the springs to the axle. These springs are guided within sleeves or sockets 3l secured along the extended members of the brackets, and termina-ting at the foot portions 21 of the brackets. The spring sockets may be further strengthened by the addition of a rib or stiifener 33 attached along the outer surface of the socket and extended to the foot portion of the bracket. The parts are secured together preferably by welding.

When installed in place on the piston, the rollers are spring urged outwardly or radially into yielding contact with the holder wall surface. lSince all of the compression springs 32 are of equal strength, the yieldingly mounted rollers exert an approximately equal radial thrust at all points about the circumference of the holder shell. Upon encountering an irregular portion of the shell, the rollers independently move to conform to the irregular surface either outwardly or inwardly, by virtue of the compression spring 32 as permitted by the slot 'i9 in the mounting brackets. In this manner the roller pressure is always approximately equalizcd about the circumference of the piston regardless of the wall surface conditions.

The piston, therefore, is guided and stabilized in a balanced condition so that there is no tendency to tilt or bind at any time. ince the rollers are free to yield, there is no overloading and rapid wear or failure of the parts. The

piston therefore operates more eiciently and the holder will last considerably longer without repairs or attention.

Having described my invention, I claim:

l. In a tank construction, a tank wall, a floating piston movable vertically within said tank, pairs of L-shaped bracket members disposed around said piston, a guide roller disposed between the bracket members of the respective pairs, said brackets having slotted extended portions adapted to receive an axle, an axle traversing said roller in each instance and having its opposite ends extended beyond the brackets, said brackets including angular foot portions and compression springs engaged between the respective foot portions and the axle for urging the rollers outwardly against the tank wall.

2. In a tank construction, an enclosure wall, a piston disposed within the wall in sealing engagement therewith, a series of brackets each comprising a pair of L-shaped members, said members having arms extending radially and in parallelism and including oppositely extended angular foot portions secured to the piston, a spring socket secured along each of said parallel extended arms and terminating at the angular foot portion, shafts extended between said parallel arms, said arms including elongated slots receiving said shafts, guide rollers mounted on the shafts, said shafts extended outwardly of said parallel arms on opposite sides, and compression springs mounted within said sockets and engaged between said angular foot portions and the extended shaft portions for urging the rollers outwardly against the tank wall.

3. A gas tank construction including the holder and the sealing piston movable within the holder, and vertically spaced circumferential rows of rollers independently, resiliently mounted on said piston and engaging the wall of the holder, each roller having a longitudinal contour conforming generally to the curvature of the holder wall, the rollers of each row being substantially widely circumferentially spaced, said resilient roller mountings each comprising a pair of spaced brackets secured to said piston and projecting radially therefrom for mounting each roller, each roller including a shaft, said brackets including portions having cooperating horizontal slots therein for receiving the respective ends of said shaft, and compression springs engaged against the respective ends of the shaft on `the side thereof opposite said holder wall for urging the roller outwardly against the holder wall, each of said rollers therefore being capable of adjusting to any local irregularity in the holder wall.

4. In a tank construction, a tank wall, a floating piston movable vertically within said tank, sets of L-shaped end brackets disposed around and carried by said piston, a guide roller dis posed betweenA the brackets of each set, said brackets having slotted extended portions adapted to receive an axle, an axle for each roller having its ends extended through said slotted portions, said brackets including angularly disposed foot portions, and compression springs engaged between the respective foot portions and the respective ends of the axle for urging the rollers outwardly against the tank wall.

WILLIAM EDWARD GRUENING. 

